The Peace by Piece Initiative:
Competing Narratives and Competing Truths of Israeli-Palestinian Peace and Conflict
Call to Dialogue

Israeli-Palestinian dialogue is often criticized as a method of “normalizing” the
conflict or “preaching to the converted.” Goals to reconcile disparate narratives
between “Palestinian” and “Israeli” positions are frequently cited as impossible, if
undesirable, owing to the sensitivity of the past and the desire to maintain the
independence of the narratives involved. Efforts to foster tolerance are continually
viewed as cloaked tactics of perpetuating uneven power relations, maintaining the
status quo, and furthering “facts on the ground” that are inimical to brokering final and
lasting peace, security, and justice. Together, these criticisms of Israeli-Palestinian
dialogue are indicative of, on the one hand, a desire to respect the disparity between
so-called “Israeli” and “Palestinian” narratives and historiography and, on the other, a
growing need for alternative models of dialogue that focus on mutual understanding,
respect, and dignity, rather than striving for what are increasingly considered chimerical
aims of reconciliation and tolerance.

In view of these criticisms, the “Competing Narratives and Competing Truths”
(CNCT) project has three main goals: (1) to engage in dialogue as an end in itself, viz., for
participants to enter into dialogue as a means to bring about greater mutual
understanding, dignity, and respect for the multitude of narratives and truths endemic
to Israeli-Palestinian peace and conflict; (2) to develop a model of dialogue as a
corrective to the salient criticisms of traditional dialogue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict
noted above; and (3) to provide qualitative information about the assumptions,
reasoning, logic, and mythoi behind the competing narratives and competing truths of
Israeli-Palestinian peace and conflict that can advance interlocutors’, facilitators’, and
researchers’ understandings of the inherited, Diasporic, trans-generational, and intergenerational perspectives of Israeli-Palestinian peace and conflict in a Canadian
context.

The CNCT project seeks graduate and undergraduate students as well as
faculty—with informed opinions of Israeli-Palestinian politics—as partners in dialogue

Tuesday April 9, 2013
9:00am – 3:00pm

University of Toronto’s Multi-Faith Centre

Registration is limited.

If you have any further questions, we invite you to contact our executive director, Matt Gordner (PhD Student, University of Toronto, Dept. of Political Science), at matt.gordner@mail.utoronto.ca.